Pod Insights The Moneywise Guys 4/27/26 Budgeting in a Buy Now, Pay Later World + Student Leadership in Kern County About this episode The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Monday, April 27th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Radio Show & Podcast" call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management LinkedIn: Moneywise_Wealth_Management Guests: Cherese Grell, CEO & President of Positive Results Unlimited and Director of CityServe Kern & Doug Carter, Broker Associate with Watson Realty & Chairman Kern County Student Leadership facebook The opinions voiced in this podcast are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a decision. Cherese Grell, Doug Carter & The Kern County Student Leadership Program are not affiliated with nor endorsed by LPL Financial or Moneywise Wealth Management].
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Live from the basement inside the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield.
0:05 Speaker 01 Call or text in at 661-396-1000.
0:29 Speaker 02 Security is offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through LPL Financial. LPL Financial and MoneyWise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.
0:37 Speaker 00 Now, let's start the MoneyWise Show.
0:41 Speaker 03 Money, money, money. Welcome to the MoneyWise Show. We are live from the basement of the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield. For the next hour, you are on News Talk 96.1 and 1230 AM, KERN. Streaming live at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can call or text into the show 24 hours a day at 661-396-1000. That was 661-396-1000. Today, we are your hosts. I'm Sammy Abiyawu with...
1:08 Speaker 04 Frank Lee.
1:09 Speaker 03 Frank!
1:10 Speaker 04 Sammy!
1:11 Speaker 03 Welcome back to the show.
1:12 Speaker 04 Yeah, it's good to see you.
1:13 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah. It's my second week back after a four-week...
1:19 Speaker 03 Steven had to... He didn't want me for like four weeks.
1:23 Speaker 04 Yeah, sure. Steven wants everyone.
1:27 Speaker 03 Steven is an awesome dude. Thanks for the tea, Steven.
1:30 Speaker 04 Yeah, you sound good.
1:31 Speaker 03 Yep.
1:32 Speaker 04 You don't even sound like, uh, well, yeah.
1:34 Speaker 03 It was just allergies, man. Don't worry, I'm not contagious.
1:38 Speaker 04 Sure. I think he got me sick, just starting to...
1:40 Speaker 03 Oh, God, I would not do that to you. I know you have a baby at home.
1:44 Speaker 04 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:45 Speaker 03 Well, we've got a good show ahead. We'll talk about a little bit of inflation and how it's squeezing the budget. We've got a listener question regarding that. We have a special guest, Sharice Grill, join us live at 1230. And we talked a little bit about their events, current serve and their events coming up and their fundraiser. But before that, Frank, how did we do today on the markets?
2:08 Speaker 04 Yeah, well, we're still open in the markets. This whole time shifting is it's kind of twisted me, but yeah, we're so open. We still got about an hour, maybe forty five minutes, fifty minutes left to the market closes. But markets did start off a little rocky, started off down, but S and P five hundred, NASDAQ and Russell's are inching their way back up. Currently, we're about eight basis points for S and P, five basis points for the NASDAQ and five basis points for the Russell two K up. I know there's been a lot of impacts over last week too, with oil prices going up and that's White House correspondent incident.
2:53 Speaker 03 Yeah, I mean, we were talking off air, I mean, all the craziness I was telling, I was telling Frank, man, I just want to have a little farm with little chickens and some horses away from all the shoeies and craziness and market and especially oil prices, man. This thing not over ninety dollars a barrel. I mean, I think we're above a hundred.
3:12 Speaker 04 Yeah, yeah.
3:13 Speaker 03 Today.
3:13 Speaker 04 Yeah.
3:14 Speaker 03 Goldman Sachs raised its Brent crude forecast to ninety dollars a barrel in Q four, ten dollars more than what they previously had it at.
3:23 Speaker 04 Yeah.
3:23 Speaker 03 And a lot of it has to do with the disruptions. I mean, we're talking about fourteen point five million barrels a day through the Strait of Hormuz. That's twenty percent of what the world consumes. There are, there are talks, I mean, airfare now is a lot higher.
3:38 Speaker 04 Yeah.
3:38 Speaker 03 They increased the prices of the airfare.
3:42 Speaker 04 Yep.
3:44 Speaker 04 Have you heard there's, I forget which company it was, was it JetBlue?
3:50 Speaker 04 One of the airliners are setting up the buy now, pay later system, payment system, which is kind of insane if you think about it, like not, it wasn't just like these.
4:03 Speaker 03 So you can finance your ticket?
4:05 Speaker 04 Yeah, you can finance.
4:06 Speaker 03 Through Klarna? That's just crazy, man.
4:10 Speaker 04 Yeah, so you can, you can purchase your tickets, but then you have installment plans, yeah.
4:15 Speaker 03 Yeah, I canceled my trip. I was going overseas and I canceled my trip, not because of the prices. Well, a little bit because of that, but also just because of the craziness. I did not want my flight to be canceled. I was not going near the Middle East, but I still was like, nah.
4:28 Speaker 04 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
4:28 Speaker 03 I don't want to take a chance and get stuck somewhere.
4:31 Speaker 04 No, no, no, exactly. But it's, it's crazy to see how these airliners are doing just like off the wall, extreme type of measures, just so they can, you know, meet profit margins or shareholder demands or whatever it may be, but this, this topic has come up multiple times as far as like economy seating. Have you seen pictures of those new seats?
4:54 Speaker 03 Uh huh.
4:54 Speaker 04 It's crazy.
4:55 Speaker 03 Yeah, top, one on the top of each other. It's like, it's like a bus, but it's worse than a bus.
5:00 Speaker 04 Yeah, yeah.
5:01 Speaker 03 If you ever traveled in a bus, Stephen, it's worse, like what they are, this concept, what Frank is talking about.
5:08 Speaker 00 What are they tighter, smaller seats?
5:10 Speaker 04 It's, it's more compact. You are literally like a pack of sardines, like.
5:15 Speaker 00 Yeah, I had to ride that bus when I was taking care of my grandma all the way to New Mexico. And they took me through Texas and then back out. It was the worst two weeks of my life, but two weeks on a bus. I couldn't, never again will I ride a bus.
5:31 Speaker 03 No, frankly, I'd rather not fly. And the US has, you know, we have 50 states, man. There's a lot of stuff to visit. There's a lot of things to see. I'd rather drive and just go see this country. We have a beautiful country versus flying overseas if tickets are just out of hand. I'd rather spend the money here too.
5:49 Speaker 04 Exactly.
5:50 Speaker 03 And help create jobs. People are suffering.
5:52 Speaker 04 Yeah.
5:52 Speaker 03 We, we, we have, we have a listener question, Frank, about.
5:56 Speaker 04 Yeah. Yeah, so before we get into. This actually segues into it. So JetBlue Vacations announced this week that it will partner with Flex Pay, a buy now, pay later program from a fintech company upgrade. So it's to give customers monthly payment options when booking flights and hotel vacation packages. I brought this up because one of our listeners' questions about budgeting.
6:21 Speaker 03 Yes.
6:21 Speaker 04 I think people see this and think it's like, oh, this is a great way to budget. But obviously, there's more to it that meets the eye. Because again, if you're paying for something that you can't afford in the first place, these monthly installment plans aren't really as.
6:35 Speaker 03 Yeah. And what type of, I mean, do you have any details about the rates or the structure?
6:39 Speaker 04 No, not yet, but.
6:43 Speaker 00 Trying to get the people to put it on their high interest credit cards and just charge it.
6:49 Speaker 04 Yeah.
6:49 Speaker 00 And then just pay it later.
6:51 Speaker 04 Yeah, yeah.
6:51 Speaker 03 You know, yeah, that's, that's the ease with which we have things. They make it so easy. Even if you're messing with your budget, even if it really does not make financial sense, it's so easy to just swipe. And all of a sudden, now you're stuck with 21%, which I want to talk about.
7:09 Speaker 04 Yeah.
7:09 Speaker 03 It's part of this listener question.
7:10 Speaker 04 Well, some of those like buy now, pay later installments, it's what you don't know is that, yes, it's interest free for those specific months. But if you miss a payment.
7:20 Speaker 03 Yes.
7:20 Speaker 04 Those interests are extremely high, extremely high. And so that's, that's where they're really banking on is like, if you miss that, like, guess what? It's not just 30%, it's.
7:32 Speaker 03 Yes. So they go, they go retroactive, some of them, all the interest that's, that you were supposed to, to pay.
7:39 Speaker 04 Yeah, exactly. So do you want me to read off that?
7:42 Speaker 03 Yeah, please, please.
7:43 Speaker 04 So this is a great segue with this question. With everything getting more expensive around here, can you share ways to tighten up a budget without feeling like you're cutting out everything you enjoy? That's a great question.
7:56 Speaker 03 It is. And like I said last week in the segment when I was here with Jared, I am very involved in the restaurants upstairs at the Woolworths Luncheonette. And we have, we have people that are working hourly and are getting paid on hourly. And I see the struggle.
8:15 Speaker 03 I would, I would start with this still. Protect the savings first. Automate this before bills hit. Okay, so if you, if we, I always talk about this. We're not a culture of savings. We don't save money. We, we get the paycheck and a lot of the time.
8:31 Speaker 04 Yeah.
8:31 Speaker 03 We already have an idea about what are we going to do with it. Right? So still, even if you're making minimum wage and you can, you can spare some savings, do that. And automate it. So you treat it like it's a bill. Right? And then move on and do what I call a spending audit.
8:51 Speaker 03 What's the spending audit? Is you look at your, all your expenses and start taking out things that are not necessary. So if you have multiple subscriptions, you have Prime, you have Netflix, you have this, you have that, Hulu, Disney. You don't need all of that.
9:05 Speaker 04 Yeah.
9:05 Speaker 03 Okay, so maybe one. Or hey, or go to Best Buy and get a $20 antenna and get the free channels even. Right? So, so these things matter. I mean, $15, $15, $15. You time that by five subscriptions all sudden. That's a little bit more than a tank of gas.
9:21 Speaker 04 Yeah.
9:22 Speaker 03 Right?
9:24 Speaker 04 It goes over from, from what you're saying. Cause there, there is like a, a general rule, a budgeting rule where it's the 50, 30, 20.
9:34 Speaker 03 Yep.
9:34 Speaker 04 Right? So 50% on your necessities, your needs. Basic things to survive of.
9:40 Speaker 03 Yes.
9:40 Speaker 04 And then 30% on wants. And then the 20% goes into the savings emergency. But I think from what you're saying with the audit, it, it highlights the importance that in order to budget correctly and feel like you're not cutting everything is track everything.
9:57 Speaker 03 Yes.
9:57 Speaker 04 Track it. Cause it, it goes a long ways. And I think from what I read is like, just initiating that first, you're already going to cut off 20% of what you spend just by being able to track it without realizing it.
10:09 Speaker 03 That's correct. I mean, being honest, see, the thing is, the mistake that a lot of us make when we budget is we're not honest with each other. So when we're doing the budget, we're looking for the ideal budget, like hey, but we forget that. Well, no, we're spending money, we eat out three times a week.
10:24 Speaker 04 Yep.
10:25 Speaker 03 Right? We go to the movies once a week. We do this once a week. So you gotta be honest and do the audit of the budget before you actually do a future audit. So you can see things that you can take out and be honest with with yourself. Then you hold yourself accountable towards that budget. On a weekly basis, on a Sunday, when you're sitting and watching a game or whatever, look at your expenditures.
10:46 Speaker 04 Yeah.
10:47 Speaker 03 The worst thing you do is you swipe that card at twenty one percent. That's just an additional interest expense.
10:53 Speaker 04 Right.
10:54 Speaker 03 That maybe you did not budget for. But again, needs versus wants. Prioritizing those. And I'm not saying just live like a hermit. No, no. Save and then treat yourself once a month or whatever to something that you really wanna be doing.
11:13 Speaker 04 Yeah.
11:13 Speaker 03 But don't leave larger than your paycheck, which is the mistake a lot of us make.
11:17 Speaker 04 Yeah, yeah, exactly.
11:18 Speaker 03 Because we're not honest with. That, that, but, but truly it's real. You go to the grocery store. When you see the, the pound of tomato at two dollars and seventy nine cents. Steve, Steven, we talked about this. Three pounds, man, of tomatoes was almost ten bucks.
11:37 Speaker 04 That's insane. Ten dollars?
11:39 Speaker 03 Yes.
11:39 Speaker 04 Jesus.
11:41 Speaker 03 No, but, and then I started because we now run the restaurant, right? I was like, let me see the prices of tomatoes. So today we got the delivery and it's two dollars a pound for a restaurant.
11:50 Speaker 04 Yeah.
11:51 Speaker 03 So when you go to the grocery as just an individual, you're paying that little premium at two seventy nine. Right? So here, like a lot of the time we'll preach, make food at home, cook for yourself, all of that. But people are going to the store and they're getting hit with lettuce at a certain price. Tomato is a certain price. So things are definitely, definitely higher. But you still wanna budget at the end of the day. Regardless of what's going on, you still wanna budget and make sure that you are allocating things accordingly and still live within the means of that paycheck.
12:27 Speaker 04 Yeah.
12:28 Speaker 03 One of the things that people wanna do also is insurance. You know, the part of those automatic payments that we set, we, we, we, you know, contract with an insurance company either for a car or whatever. And then we forget about it because they debit the account automatically. That's one of their tools and tricks. Well, go back and see if you can, if you had no accidents for the last three years, go back to your insurance company and ask for a discount. That could be substantial at times, especially for young drivers and young people that are just entering the workforce.
13:00 Speaker 03 And, and, and really, really avoid the twenty one to thirty two percent credit cards. Like as much as possible. You do not wanna be swiping that card so you can live a certain lifestyle when your paycheck does not support it.
13:13 Speaker 04 Yeah. And some of the other ways to help with some of the budgeting is your, your habits on what you spend on, especially the brand types.
13:23 Speaker 03 Yes.
13:24 Speaker 04 Grocery being a good example. It's like, okay, if you're going to Sprouts or Whole Foods, like, yes, it might be healthier for some of the brands, but if it's worth going to some more.
13:36 Speaker 03 Winko.
13:37 Speaker 04 Yeah, Winko, exactly.
13:38 Speaker 03 Walmart.
13:39 Speaker 04 Winko, Walmart.
13:40 Speaker 03 Yes, the meat is gonna be a little bit chewy, so use the pressure cooker. Right, Steven? I mean, I'm, I'm serious. The quality of the meat, man, when you, when you go to Walmart and you buy that beef, it is not the same beef as once. I'm sorry. It's a little bit chewier.
13:57 Speaker 00 How would I know?
13:58 Speaker 03 I, I, I, I, I use the pressure cooker.
14:01 Speaker 00 Yeah.
14:02 Speaker 03 Tenderize it with a little bit of pineapple.
14:04 Speaker 00 My mom works at Wooddells. We get a discount, family discount.
14:08 Speaker 03 Hey.
14:08 Speaker 00 Hey. But, uh, yeah, we can't afford the meat right now anyways. With this slim diet, I'm, I'm just doing rotisserie chickens and a lot of different chickens.
14:19 Speaker 04 Rotisserie chicken diet.
14:20 Speaker 03 Which is better for you anyways.
14:21 Speaker 00 Right.
14:22 Speaker 03 Yeah, I got gap, so I don't, I don't, I don't need the beef. I still eat it though.
14:26 Speaker 04 He doesn't need the beef.
14:27 Speaker 00 I don't need the beef.
14:30 Speaker 03 No, seriously, I mean, I feel, I feel for it because I see it in, with, with our employees and the struggles and what have you. It's, it's real. It hurts.
14:38 Speaker 04 Yeah, yeah.
14:39 Speaker 03 It hurts, so.
14:40 Speaker 04 It does.
14:41 Speaker 03 Good, the good question. Keep them coming.
14:44 Speaker 03 You want to take the first break and then we'll come back, we can answer the second listener question?
14:48 Speaker 04 We can go, we can go through the second question.
14:50 Speaker 03 Okay, great.
14:51 Speaker 04 Yeah.
14:51 Speaker 03 Second question, this is a good one too. Hello, I'm getting close to jumping into retirement after thirty years in oil. Oh, congratulations.
14:59 Speaker 04 Wow, thirty years.
15:01 Speaker 03 But what should I be double checking to make sure I don't run out of money later? Later on, lol, trying not to rely on social security because who knows how long that will be around? Very good question and funny question as well.
15:15 Speaker 04 Yeah, that's a great question, or thank you for those questions coming in.
15:21 Speaker 04 And congrats to your retirement.
15:23 Speaker 03 Yes.
15:24 Speaker 04 Thirty years in oil, man. I don't, I don't know how I can stand thirty years with, with you. I'm just kidding.
15:30 Speaker 03 Ouch. I'm sorry, Frank, don't worry. We still have forty-five minutes in the show, I'll get, I'll get you.
15:37 Speaker 04 Yeah, yeah, yeah. But these are some valid questions and, and some things that you should be double checking. I, I did a segment with KGT on Friday and, you know, the, one of the, the million dollar question was how much do I need to save up? And to that it's, well, whatever your last pre-retirement salary was, you multiply that by eight or ten times and that's what you should have saved up. Now with this, you also want to make sure that you're having a set withdrawal rate. People know the four percent rule, like that's what you should be using to withdraw down the account. While you're still invested.
16:18 Speaker 04 So some of the misconceptions with retirement is that once you're retired, you put everything into a very conservative or safe account. Because you want to, you want to save as much of the principal, which is valid, but you also need to realize. Look, if you have longevity in the family. You have to understand this money has to last for an X amount of years. So that could be if you're retiring at age sixty five and the average age till death is eighty, eighty-five, ninety, you have to plan for that. You have to make sure that money lasts you for that long.
16:58 Speaker 04 So there are ways that, you know, you can do yourselves, but there are ways that we as financial advisors can check for that, you know? We also want to make sure that not only is this money going to last you in a, for that twenty, thirty years, but we want to do some stress testing. Like, hey, if the market takes a dive and you're invested this way, how does your portfolio hold? What happens if inflation rates go up more than three percent to four or five? How does that look? What happens if you have emergency? Or what is your long-term care needs look like? All of these that we, we are what we go through with the client and what you should be planning towards that retirement.
17:43 Speaker 04 And I, I would say, you know, talk with the advisor, see exactly what you have planned, how much you have saved up, and then see exactly what you need to do from there. Because there's a lot of work that goes into this that a lot of people don't think about. It's like, yes, I want this money to last, but you also have to think about some external factors that might affect you.
18:05 Speaker 03 Yeah, I would agree with you and all the things you said. Congrats on the retirement, especially in oil, thirty years. And you're retired from an industry that typically is, pays well.
18:18 Speaker 04 Yeah.
18:19 Speaker 03 Right?
18:19 Speaker 04 Yeah.
18:19 Speaker 03 And they match, they have matching and, and, and other things. So congrats on that. I would say, um, talk to a financial advisor if you don't have one already, right? And I'm not pushing MoneyWise here or even you, Frank. I mean, I know you're good, but.
18:35 Speaker 04 He's like, ah, he's all right.
18:37 Speaker 03 See, see how I did that, Stephen? See how I did that? That was quick, wasn't it? Now, seriously, now, talk to a financial advisor. MoneyWise have plenty of those. We also have certified financial planners, but definitely a financial advisor, in my opinion, will walk you through multiple scenarios, like you said.
18:55 Speaker 04 Yeah.
18:56 Speaker 03 And there's multiple tools used today. One of them is WriteCapital, which is a software that helps you solve for multiple problems all at once.
19:04 Speaker 04 Yes.
19:05 Speaker 03 That way, the client can see. Almost can see in the future.
19:10 Speaker 04 Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it's a very interactive tool and one that has helped us as advisors be more proactive in the planning aspect. So it's it's definitely helpful and one that Jackie dreads because every time I bring up the budget sheet, she's like, I'm not this again.
19:28 Speaker 04 But yes, it's it's.
19:29 Speaker 03 You're a brave man. Your wife is pregnant and you're talking about budget?
19:32 Speaker 04 Oh, I don't bring that up right now because of that.
19:34 Speaker 03 All right, smart dude, smart dude.
19:36 Speaker 04 She will break my neck.
19:38 Speaker 03 No, but if if if you if if you do, I would encourage the listener to talk to a financial advisor. Like I said, we have, we have them here at Money Wise, but if you have one currently, please, please schedule a meeting and go over the the needs, but also what's going on and also the question about social security and how it can interact.
20:00 Speaker 04 Yes.
20:00 Speaker 03 Your 401K and what have you, because that's very important.
20:04 Speaker 04 Yeah, because again, we want to take care of all those external factors and then understand what your budget looks like.
20:10 Speaker 03 Correct. Your lifestyle. We're talking about budget and lifestyle.
20:13 Speaker 04 Exactly, exactly. So we want to see, hey, like, most of the social security can with, uh, help out with most of your expenses. So that would be a good thing. Um, and the 4% withdrawal rule, you know, that's a general rule of thumb, but that's not something that you want to abide by, you know, for for everyone. It's not a one size fit all. It's just a general rule of thumb to to use as an outline. But in your case, you know, it it could be something to where, okay, I do need to take out more because of these circumstances or because of this.
20:45 Speaker 03 So I'm I'm gonna play the role of this person now. I'm gonna ask you this question. Does it cost me any money to sit with you, Frank?
20:51 Speaker 04 No.
20:51 Speaker 03 And just go over these questions in person?
20:54 Speaker 04 No.
20:55 Speaker 03 How long does it take time wise?
20:57 Speaker 04 Depends. Um, if it's pretty straightforward, maybe 30 minutes. Uh, if it's a little longer, go up to an hour, hour and a half.
21:05 Speaker 03 And this person can come prepared to the meeting with maybe some statements?
21:08 Speaker 04 Statements, yeah, some some budget sheets if they have any. Um, and then for me, I mean, I I like to get down to goals base. I want to get to know that person first. Then just rather than just going over numbers.
21:20 Speaker 03 Yeah.
21:20 Speaker 04 You know.
21:21 Speaker 03 And and and if this person is married, bring your wife with you because that's that has an impact on the budget and the lifestyle.
21:27 Speaker 04 Yes, yes.
21:28 Speaker 03 Don't be coming into the meeting by yourself.
21:30 Speaker 04 Yeah, I think for me, like, I don't like to have these type of meetings unless the spouse is there with them in that room. Because a lot of things can be said, but a lot of things can be miscommunicated to the spouse. Not just because of the spouse was trying to hide something or whatever. But just because of how much information gets thrown out in that room. There could be some things that can be miscommunicated later on, just just because of the nature of things. So I always always advocate for having both the spouses, the husband and wife there. Together for for just not just for the initial, but for every meeting there for. Yeah. Because things change.
22:14 Speaker 04 I always refer to this as a living plan. As soon as you sit down with me and something happens and you guys walk out that door, things change.
22:23 Speaker 03 Correct.
22:24 Speaker 04 So, yeah, but.
22:26 Speaker 03 Very good, very good. We have another listener comment here. I usually fly to Jacksonville every summer to see my grandchildren and prices from December to April has already twice higher. Have to wait until next year and hope this is the new normal price to fly. This is this, yeah.
22:44 Speaker 04 Yeah.
22:45 Speaker 03 This is crazy. My wife bought a ticket. She goes with her girlfriends and all the kids want to like one one place every summer. They're going to Canada this summer. She bought the tickets before the war started, so she got lucky.
22:59 Speaker 04 Jesus.
22:59 Speaker 03 Yeah.
23:00 Speaker 04 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, again, we'll have to wait and see how if not just JetBlue, but if every other airline starts to adopt the whole buy now, pay later thing. I'm I'm kind of interested to see how that plays out because again, your your everyday individual is going to think, oh, yeah, like, I can just defer this payment later, defer it later, which is a good idea, but. If you don't have that healthy habit, then you're just gonna rack on multiple payments from multiple sources. It can spiral into something, something else.
23:35 Speaker 03 I agree.
23:36 Speaker 04 I think that's the scary part.
23:38 Speaker 03 I agree. Going back to something that popped in my head, talking to this gentleman about oil and his retirement from oil. I was talking to somebody at an event last week from CRC. Good news is that we're drilling in Kern County again.
23:51 Speaker 04 Oh, okay.
23:51 Speaker 03 We have about 200 open permits to drill. We have, he told me, this guy, I don't want to mention his name, but CRC has four rigs just in Kern County, which equals the number of rigs in the whole state of California a couple of years back.
24:05 Speaker 04 Gotcha.
24:06 Speaker 03 So this is awesome news for Kern County. If there's a listener that has a little bit more info, can submit something or statistic, I'll be very happy to get it. Steven, we're gonna take our first break.
24:21 Speaker 00 Our first break and we'll come back with our first guest of the week and we'll be right back. This is K E R N.
24:39 Speaker 03 Thanks, Steven. Welcome back to the Money Wise Show. I'm Sammy Abia with Frank Lee. We are joined in the second segment by Sharice Grell, CEO, do I pronounce it correctly? Grell?
24:49 Speaker 05 Yes.
24:50 Speaker 03 CEO and President of Positive Results Unlimited and Director of City Serve Kern. And Doug Carter, Broker Associate, or no, you're.
24:59 Speaker 00 Broker Associate is correct, yeah.
25:00 Speaker 03 With Watson Realty and Chairman of Kern County Student Leadership, which we want to talk about today and the impact and what's going on there. So Doug, it was, it's great to see you. I haven't seen you like 25 years. I was a young buck at Taft National Bank. Sharice, thanks for bringing Doug in.
25:19 Speaker 05 Yeah.
25:19 Speaker 03 I get to see him.
25:20 Speaker 05 Oh, good. I didn't know it was gonna be a reunion. This is awesome.
25:24 Speaker 03 Well, welcome. Let's talk a little bit about about what Doug is here to talk about, which is Kern County Student Leadership. So Doug, what is Kern County Student Leadership?
25:35 Speaker 06 Kern County Student Leadership, or KCSL as we'll call it, was started at McFarland High School in 1991 by my parents, Warren and Lenore Carter, based on a model that was shown to them by a gentleman back in Washington DC of how to kind of give back to your community and weave into the leaders of tomorrow. And so, a group had been meeting at my dad's ranch, and they thought, well, how can we, how can we pour back into the community? And it just so happens the superintendent of the, the school district in McFarland, as well as the principal were in that group. And they decided they'd meet with, bring community
26:15 Speaker 06 leaders and meet with the student leaders of the high school. And thus was born KCSL.
26:21 Speaker 03 And how long ago was this?
26:24 Speaker 06 Thirty-five years ago, yeah.
26:26 Speaker 03 Wow. And, and you're carrying the torch on behalf of the...
26:28 Speaker 06 Yeah, it's, it's fun. We got a great board. I love sharing the board table with Sherri. She's got a, brings a lot of energy to it. And we're, we're really blessed with the folks around that table to continue that effort.
26:40 Speaker 03 So, so the, what's the goal with meeting with the young students and the future leaders? Trainings, coaching sessions, just events?
26:49 Speaker 06 We, the goal of the, the effort is really to encourage, motivate, and inspire the leaders of tomorrow. And unfortunately, high schoolers, I think, get a bad rap. And the kids that we get to meet with, really give me hope for tomorrow. Because there's some sharp kids that really do have great talent, and, and talent that they haven't even tested yet, right? So as community leaders, we get to sit with them once a month, and just encourage them and talk about leadership.
27:26 Speaker 03 And you started at McFarland. Now, how many schools, how many high schools are involved now?
27:33 Speaker 06 Well, we got welcomed into the Kern High School District. Probably thirty years ago. And this year, we met, I think with on fifteen, fifteen campuses. And that's really only limited by the amount of volunteers that we have to take on a high school and be committed to that for a whole year.
27:54 Speaker 03 So your board members, in addition to your board members, you have volunteers as well?
27:57 Speaker 06 Yes, sir, yeah.
27:58 Speaker 03 Okay. And any requirements out of the volunteers? Do they have to have a certain level of education or, you know?
28:04 Speaker 06 Passion for students and certainly to show the leadership qualities that we would hope to inspire any of these students.
28:14 Speaker 03 And if I would like to volunteer, what's, what's, how many hours a month should I have to dedicate to that?
28:21 Speaker 06 It's, it's one hour a month, basically, or less, unfortunately. You know, Sharice's school is a little different. But they typically give us the lunch hour. And we like to say we bribe the kids to show up by bringing them pizza. And so we have pizza and, and some of these schools, we get thirty minutes, that's it. And we have a wonderful curriculum that was developed by one of our board members. And we get thirty minutes a month to be in front of these kids. And then we have three other activities throughout the year that we include them in. So there are some other things where they get to mix it up with their compatriots.
28:59 Speaker 03 We, we had the, Emily graduated from BHS.
29:04 Speaker 05 Oh, nice.
29:04 Speaker 03 So last week, we had the tour from some of the student, high school students coming in through the Woolworths.
29:10 Speaker 05 Oh, excellent.
29:11 Speaker 03 And they were not very interested in me or talking about the restaurant, but the building itself, they were very, very interested there. So they went to the basement and they went to the second floor, third floor. And eventually they went to Reverb, which is the popular place now. But it was nice to see young people actually interested in learning something other than just the books, right? And, and, and that's, that's really cool, cool to see.
29:37 Speaker 05 VHS is my campus that I'm on for Kern County Student Leadership. I love that campus and I always tell them in the beginning, okay, I'm a North High grad. Don't boo me and my kids are Highland High School grads. Don't boo them, but my parents went to Kern County Union High School, which became VHS in the early days and we just have a great time. I was, I actually started with KCSL through a friend of mine who was, was involved in KCSL and said, Therese, come out and, and mentor, be a part of my group at BC or I'm saying BCHS, I'm sorry, BHS, sorry, sorry, drillers, I'm so sorry.
30:18 Speaker 05 At BHS and, and I just, I fell in love with the students. I fell in love with the dialogue because we really go out there and we want to hear them. Yeah. You know, we're not talking at them. We're talking about what do they see as emerging leaders? What are the challenges that they're seeing on campus? What are the challenges that they have at home? You know, Sammy, you're younger than me, I think, but you know, it's interesting to see, we learned a lot of, okay, I'm 53, so, but we learned a lot of things in school that they no longer teach in school. You know, they don't teach kids how to even address an envelope, you know? And so you're finding out from these kids, they don't know how to address an envelope.
31:03 Speaker 05 And so just getting there to give them support and to give them opportunity to learn and really just to hear them at their, that level. And then the curriculum that we have is amazing. Going over ethics questions, you know, if you hop up to a ATM machine and there's a $20 bill there, what do you do with it? Do you take it into the bank? Do you put it in your pocket and, and just kind of throwing it out there? Like, what do you do? And it's even funny watching them process that. Okay, I'm, I'm a leader. My, my selfish part's like, I'm taking the money and running, like I'm out of here. But now I'm a leader. Oh, and I'm at the bank with my little.
31:47 Speaker 05 Brother, okay, how do I show up?
31:49 Speaker 03 Yeah.
31:49 Speaker 05 How do I show up if if I just took that money and oh, now they've got me on camera? And the person came in to get them, get their money back that they accidentally left there? How do I, how do I show up?
32:01 Speaker 03 I, I, I definitely agree with, with, with what you guys are doing, especially because I, I think personally that our teachers are so overworked. They might not have the energy nor the time to do things like what you're talking about. Because what 50, 50 kids in one classroom?
32:17 Speaker 05 Yeah.
32:17 Speaker 03 It's just a lot.
32:19 Speaker 04 50 kids now?
32:21 Speaker 03 Or so, I mean, sometimes 40 to 50, but on average, I think it's about 40 or 45.
32:26 Speaker 04 Yeah.
32:26 Speaker 03 Which is a lot of kids to manage, right? So what you guys are doing truly is amazing. I, I, I definitely will, would love to go with you at least to try it once.
32:35 Speaker 05 Love that, yes.
32:36 Speaker 03 You know, especially, yeah, especially because it's the alma mater of Sheridan and Emily. So I support that.
32:42 Speaker 05 Well, like Doug was saying at BHS, ours is, we get about an hour and a half. They take one of their learning periods plus a lunch hour. So we get a lot of time and I work with Michael Stewart, who is, you know, a hero in the Bakersfield community here. I remember in high school when he went and went off to play for.
33:03 Speaker 03 Miami Dolphins.
33:04 Speaker 05 Yeah, the Dolphin, yes, it was Stephen. Yes, and, and the Rams, are you gonna, are you gonna cheer them on too?
33:14 Speaker 03 Only Dolphins for Stephen, only Dolphins. Uh, so in addition to everything you guys are doing, you have an event. So, so this is a volunteer organization, meaning it's a nonprofit, I'm gonna, I'm gonna assume. So a lot of the funds and everything comes through donations as well as. Yes. This event that you're gonna, gonna have, when is the event coming? The, the third annual sip and savor?
33:37 Speaker 05 Third annual sip and savor is this Friday night, May 1st. It is out at the Grove at Shadow Creek. And it's a beautiful, beautiful venue out there. Um, it is the home of, um, maybe I shouldn't say who they are, should I say who they are? The home of the. MFRs, they are amazing hosts and they took their part of their, it looked like what could have been a pasture. And they turned it into where you can come out and have events and the grounds are just gorgeous. They've got string lights and then we add some more ambiance with uh some, some jazz from.
34:18 Speaker 06 Steven, Steven Eisen and his duo will be um entertaining us with some smooth jazz and it's a great, it's a great evening. We um, we have three stations, wine stations where we'll be tasting six wines at each station. And then we've got what we call tasty bites by um Terry Kirkendall and Rick Mossman. So it'll be food and drink and we got mocktails and we're gonna have covenant coffee there giving us some dessert coffee and. Yeah, it's just a fun, fun evening to mill about and enjoy one another and hear more about what we do.
34:55 Speaker 03 So the, the event is May 1st, uh this Friday between the hours of 6 and 9pm. And tickets are available?
35:04 Speaker 06 They are.
35:04 Speaker 05 They are.
35:05 Speaker 03 Hundred dollars per person?
35:06 Speaker 06 A person.
35:07 Speaker 03 Can, can somebody sponsor a table or is this?
35:09 Speaker 05 Absolutely. Sponsorships are available. You could go on Eventbrite and look under um KCSL sip and savor. And it reads out what our sponsorship opportunities are. You can be a Cabernet sponsor or a Chardonnay sponsor.
35:26 Speaker 06 Or a Pinot sponsor.
35:27 Speaker 05 Woo hoo. So, or, or you can take your wife, Sammy. You can take your wife out for a night.
35:34 Speaker 03 She, she, she loved, I don't drink, but she does. All the wines you just mentioned, she'll definitely have fun with those.
35:40 Speaker 06 Hey, we've got some very creative mocktails.
35:42 Speaker 05 I'm a connoisseur of the mocktail and the mocktails are so yummy. They are so good.
35:50 Speaker 03 Nice, nice.
35:51 Speaker 05 I also, I also enjoy our silent auction and our live auction items. We have Bennett Maybin who's gonna be out there. He is um for, for all of us that are involved in FFA, he is one of the auctioneers at the Kern County Fair. And so he's gonna. To be there for during our live auction, you get a chance to get, get great seats at a Dodger game this year, or some golf.
36:18 Speaker 06 Golf out at La Quinta PGA West.
36:20 Speaker 03 Nice, nice.
36:21 Speaker 05 Yeah.
36:22 Speaker 03 Well, I, I would, I would like to donate something to the silent auction from upstairs at the World Works. So I'll, I'll put a basket together.
36:29 Speaker 05 Thank you, Sammy.
36:30 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah. Well, not me myself, but I'll have somebody there. I'm not creative.
36:34 Speaker 06 It's not gonna be peanut butter and jelly?
36:36 Speaker 03 No, no, it will be a couple of gift cards and a tee shirt and a hat from the World Works.
36:41 Speaker 05 That's great. Thank you so much.
36:43 Speaker 03 Of course, of course. No, anything to, to support, whatever you guys are doing is amazing because one of the things I see lacking, and, and, and I agree with you, Doug, I do get frustrated with high schoolers. And, and I have a 13 year old that's about to, what I get frustrated with is the repeat of myself. How many times I have to repeat myself to get something done? But I also see the need for leadership. There's no if or buts about that. I mean, leadership has to come from somewhere and homegrown ones, I prefer that. So, so you guys are doing an amazing job. Thank you for what you're, for what you're doing. We'll take our break and when we come back, we'll talk a little bit more about this because I really want the listeners to, to hone in and get familiar with the event. We'll be right back.
37:34 Speaker 03 We're back at the Money Wise Show. I'm Sammy Abia with Frank Lee, joined here with Sherri Skrell and Doug Carter, here to talk to us about, what are we talking about? We're talking about a lot of stuff. Lots of stuff. We're talking about the event coming on, on Friday.
37:49 Speaker 06 Zip and savor.
37:50 Speaker 03 Yeah, but there's a lot more than just one event. You guys do a lot more. And last week we had an event.
37:56 Speaker 06 We did. We, um, when we first started this, uh, the students had an interest in meeting their fellow compatriots at the other school sites. And so we said, okay, well, let's throw them a banquet, right? We're going to celebrate the fact they committed to us for a year. And it gives them the chance to, to put on the nines and come, you know, Impress us and impress our fellow students. So that was held at um Hodel's uh last Monday. And we had a great event there and I'll let Sharice talk a little bit about the speaker. But prior to that, they said, why do we have to wait a whole year to meet our our our friends? You know, from the other uh
38:35 Speaker 03 Schools.
38:35 Speaker 06 High schools. And so we said, okay, we'll have a fall bash. And so we had a fall bash. Normally, we have a fall bash in the fall and we've been renting out rollerama and and having the kids come there and and watch them roller skate. So
38:49 Speaker 03 That's great.
38:49 Speaker 06 It's been fun. And then we have a a leadership seminar associated with the Bakersfield Prayer Breakfast, where the speaker of the breakfast then meets with the students um exclusively at Bakersfield High School Harvey Auditorium. And these these students get to meet the speaker, which sometimes come with national renown, you know.
39:08 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah.
39:09 Speaker 06 It's it's a wonderful exposure of those those students to meet someone that they probably wouldn't have the opportunity to to meet.
39:17 Speaker 03 Yeah. Yeah, and and from from the program, the Kern County Student Leadership, any any specific name in the community that people would recognize? That went through the program, graduated, and now is uh worth?
39:30 Speaker 05 Yeah, well, um, some exciting stuff that's happening here in community is we have a new police chief in Brent Stratton. And Brent Stratton also went went through Kern County Student Leadership, um as did um. Oh, what is her first name? Is it Jasmine Cower, who was Assistant Mayor? I think her first name's Jasmine.
39:52 Speaker 03 For office right now?
39:53 Speaker 05 Yeah, she's running for office. She, yeah. So and she was our speaker at Sip and Savor last year. But uh but Brent was our speaker at our Leadership Banquet last week, as Doug was talking about. What? We are blessed in in this community to have him as our chief, for one. But he was so humble and transparent with those kids and talking about leadership. And, you know, one, one thing that I loved, I remember being, you know, a student in high school and thinking, man, if I screw up. It's like devastating, you know, it's just sometimes you can't get past it. You know, I'm going to chalk it up to my brain not being developed at that time yet. But, but you know, it's just devastating.
40:39 Speaker 05 And Brent talked to those kids and said, let me tell you, I make mistakes every single day. You're gonna make mistakes. It's how we grow. And I still make them to this day and we just get real with it, take responsibility for it, learn from it and move on. And he was just a phenomenal speaker on, on leadership and, and the, and, and played the games with the kids, won one of the games. I love that. Yeah. I love that.
41:06 Speaker 03 It's amazing. It's amazing what, what you guys are doing. We have a, we do have a listener question. Is this available for all students or do, do they need to be qualified like ROTC?
41:16 Speaker 06 Each of the school sites selects the students that we meet with. It started off with the ASB officers and the class and club presidents. And then that has morphed into what we'll kind of call the second tier of leadership kids. We find that those kids that run for office tend to get all the opportunities. And yet there's that second tier, either they didn't run or they didn't win, but still have tremendous leadership potential. Those are the, those are the students that have kind of become our targets and we just encourage them and motivate them. But each of the school sites chooses which group we get to meet with.
41:54 Speaker 05 And I would encourage, if there is anyone out there, you know, I'm a mom. So, you know, my mom ears are always perked up like, okay, what, you know, this would be great for my child. You know, talk to the activities director. The activities director at all the school sites are very well aware of current county student leadership. And they can direct for each particular site, they can direct a parent or a student of where KCSL is involved in like, in that campus and how they can get involved. I know there are some school sites that it's a part of Link Crew at BHS. It's a part of Driller Service Academy.
42:32 Speaker 05 And some it's on the lunch hour and they welcome any students of a particular grade level to come in and join. So, yeah, ask the activities director.
42:43 Speaker 06 We really encourage the community input.
42:47 Speaker 06 Certainly to motivate their students to become leaders, right? So if they show that interest, we would never turn them away if it were up to us. And most of the activities directors understand that we're kind of open to whoever shows that interest. When I started this at McFarland High School with my folks, we would have students there that were with us for four years. Well, there may be a student that either didn't win the next year or decided not to run, and yet they didn't want to miss out on the opportunity. And so we would grandfather those students in.
43:19 Speaker 03 I see.
43:20 Speaker 06 And so it was fun to see and hear them graduate walk across the stage with KCSL accolades spoken from the stage, you know, and they were very proud of the fact that they got to participate in this leadership program.
43:32 Speaker 03 That's amazing. So again, for the listeners, the event is this Friday, May 1st, between the hours of 6 and 9. The location again, Sharice?
43:42 Speaker 05 It is at The Grove at Shadow Creek. And if you go on Eventbrite and get your tickets, there will, you'll be able to get your address there if people are unfamiliar with it. Or heck, call me, text me, 661-889-1814, and I'm happy to text you back a QR code to make it easy for you to get those tickets. Whatever makes it easy, we're here to help.
44:09 Speaker 03 Thank you so much, Sharice and Doug. Thanks for coming in today. A great show. You guys are doing an amazing job. We'll try our best to promote, help, hopefully in person too, Sharice. So thank you very much. Thanks for coming in today.
44:23 Speaker 05 Thank you guys.
44:24 Speaker 03 Steven, who do we have tomorrow?
44:25 Speaker 00 Tomorrow, we have you and Sherrod sitting down with Mike McCoy from the Kern County Museum. Until then, be smart, be safe, be money wise.
44:46 Speaker 02 Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through LPL Financial. LPL Financial and MoneyWise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.
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